Maybe you're bored with your remote control. Maybe you have delusions of being an actual, spell-flingin' wizard. Whatever the reasons may be, the Kymera Magic Wand remote exists, and aspires to make your television watching a little more magical. Is it just a bunch of hocus pocus?

What Is It?

A universal remote that uses flicks and swishes to control your TV.

Who's it For?

Design

With ornate handle detail and a metal endcap, the Kymera wand looks like a dignified and skillfully-crafted piece of wood straight out of the wizarding world. In reality, it's just molded plastic. And the metal cap is keeping a lid on the battery compartment.

Using It

After installing the batteries, the wand begins pulsing as if it were some other sort of magic wand. Now come the gestures: up and down, left and right, tap the side, tap the top, big swish. Every gesture you perform corresponds to a set number of pulses that follow, which is supposed to teach you the proper way to handle this thing. Once you're done learning wizard wand morse code, you can map any of your remotes buttons to any gesture, though some gestures are intended for specific actions. For example, you can rotate the wand like a knob to control volume.

The Best Part

When you program the big swish gesture to control power, it adds a very dramatic flair to your television watching.

Tragic Flaw

It doesn't really work. More than half of the time, gestures either don't register with the wand, or some unintended action occurs.

This Is Weird...

When first installing the batteries and using the wand, it wouldn't come to life. As I started to unscrew the battery cap, it started functioning. Turns out, you don't want to tighten that as much as possible.

Test Notes

Used in a living room with a Samsung LCD TV.

Wore a black and white scarf.

Verbal commands didn't improve the efficacy of the wand in the slightest.

Should You Buy It?

No. God no. Once the novelty of this thing faded away (and which lasted all of 2 minutes), using this wand revealed itself to be a bigger pain in the ass than just picking up the remote. And that's when it was actually functioning correctly. And when you take into consideration the thing costs $70, that's an awfully expensive knick knack that's going to find its way to the back of your media cabinet. [Kymera]